Brightest Star in the Galaxy Has New Competition

Media RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-132 July 15, 2008

Brightest Star in the Galaxy Has New Competition

A contender for the title of brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy has been unearthed in
the dusty metropolis of the galaxy's center.

Nicknamed the "Peony nebula star," the bright stellar bulb was revealed by NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope and other ground-based telescopes. It blazes with the light of an
estimated 3.2 million suns.

The reigning "brightest star" champion is Eta Carina, with a whopping solar wattage of
4.7 million suns. But according to astronomers, it's hard to pin down an exact brightness,
or luminosity, for these scorching stars, so they could potentially shine with a similar
amount of light.

"The Peony nebula star is a fascinating creature. It appears to be the second-brightest star
that we now know of in the galaxy, and it's located deep into the galaxy's center," said
Lidia Oskinova of Potsdam University in Germany. "There are probably other stars just
as bright if not brighter in our galaxy that remain hidden from view." Oskinova is
principal investigator for the research and second author of a paper appearing in a future
issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Scientists already knew about the Peony nebula star, but because of its sheltered location
in the dusty central hub of our galaxy, its extreme luminosity was not revealed until now.
Spitzer's dust-piercing infrared eyes can see straight into the heart of our galaxy, into
regions impenetrable by visible light. Likewise, infrared data from the European
Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope in Chile were integral in calculating
the Peony nebula star's luminosity.

"Infrared astronomy opens extraordinary views into the environment of the central region
of our galaxy," said Oskinova.

The brightest stars in the universe are also the biggest. Astronomers estimate the Peony
nebula star kicked off its life with a hefty mass of roughly 150 to 200 times that of our
sun. Stars this massive are rare and puzzle astronomers because they push the limits
required for stars to form. Theory predicts that if a star starts out too massive, it can't hold
itself together and must break into a double or multiple stars instead.

Not only is the Peony nebula star hefty, it also has a wide girth. It is a type of giant blue
star called a Wolf-Rayet star, with a diameter roughly 100 times that of our sun. That
means this star, if placed where our sun is, would extend out to about the orbit of
Mercury.

With so much mass, the star barely keeps itself together. It sheds an enormous amount of
stellar matter in the form of strong winds over its relatively short lifetime of a few million
years. This matter is pushed so hard by strong radiation from the star that the winds speed
up to about 1.6 million kilometers per hour (one million miles per hour) in only a few
hours.

Ultimately, the Peony nebula star will blow up in a fantastic explosion of cosmic
proportions called a supernova. In fact, Oskinova and her colleagues say that the star is
ripe for exploding soon, which in astronomical terms mean anytime from now to millions
of years from now.

"When this star blows up, it will evaporate any planets orbiting stars in the vicinity," said
Oskinova. "Farther out from the star, the explosion could actually trigger the birth of new
stars."

In addition to the star itself, the astronomers noted a cloud of dust and gas, called a
nebula, surrounding the star. The team nicknamed this cloud the Peony nebula because it
resembles the ornate flower.

"The nebula was probably created from the spray of dust leaking off the massive Peony
nebula star," said Andreas Barniske of Potsdam University, lead author of the study.

Wolf-Rainer Hamann, also of Potsdam University, is another co-author of the paper and
the principal investigator of a Spitzer program enabling this research.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space
Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science
operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Spitzer's infrared
spectrograph, which was used to determine the luminosity of the Peony nebula star, was
built by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Its development was led by Jim Houck of
Cornell. For more information about Spitzer, visit

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: July 7-11, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
July 7-11, 2008

o Dune (Released 07 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080707a

o THEMIS ART #85 (Released 08 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080708a

o THEMIS ART #86 (Released 09 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080709a

o THEMIS ART #87 (Released 10 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080710a

o THEMIS ART #88 (Released 11 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080711a

All of the THEMIS images are archived here:

http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University,
Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.
The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State
University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor
for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission
operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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MRO HiRISE Images - July 9, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
July 9, 2008

o Phoenix Descent with Color and the Heat Shield in Free-Fall

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/phoenix-descent-color.php

o Geologic Contacts in Juventae Chasma

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008708_1780

o Utopia Planitia LandformsFall in Hellas Basin

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008452_2175

o Fall in Hellas Basin

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008427_1380

All of the HiRISE images are archived here:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by t
he University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.,
built the HiRISE instrument.

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Uses Soil Probe and Swiss Scope

Guy Webster 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@lpl.arizona.edu

J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
NASA Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

News release: 2008-130 July 10, 2008

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Uses Soil Probe and Swiss Scope

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has touched Martian soil with a fork-like probe for the first time and begun using
a microscope that examines shapes of tiny particles by touching them.

Phoenix's robotic arm pushed the fork-like probe's four spikes into undisturbed soil Tuesday as a validation
test of the insertion procedure. The prongs of this thermal and electrical conductivity probe are about 1.5
centimeters, or half an inch, long. The science team will use the probe tool to assess how easily heat and
electricity move through the soil from one spike to another. Such measurements can provide information about
frozen or unfrozen water in the soil.

The probe sits on a "knuckle" of the 2.35-meter-long (7.7-foot-long) robotic arm. Held up in the air, it has
provided assessments of water vapor in the atmosphere several times since Phoenix's May 25 landing on far-
northern Mars. Researchers anticipate getting the probe's first soil measurements following a second
placement into the ground, planned as part of today's Phoenix activities on Mars.

Phoenix also has returned the first image from its atomic force microscope. This Swiss-made microscope
builds an image of the surface of a particle by sensing it with a sharp tip at the end of a spring, all
microfabricated from a sliver of silicon. The sensor rides up and down following the contour of the surface,
providing information about the target's shape.

"The same day we first touched a target with the thermal and electrical conductivity probe, we first touched
another target with a needle about three orders of magnitude smaller -- one of the tips of our atomic force
microscope," said Michael Hecht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead scientist for the
suite of instruments on Phoenix that includes both the conductivity probe and the microscopy station.

The atomic force microscope can provide details of soil-particle shapes as small as about 100 nanometers,
less than one-hundredth the width of a human hair. This is about 20 times smaller than what can be resolved
with Phoenix's optical microscope, which has provided much higher-magnification imaging than anything seen
on Mars previously.

The first touch of an atomic force microscope tip to a substrate on the microscopy station's sample-
presentation wheel served as a validation test. The substrate will be used to hold soil particles in place for
inspection by the microscope. The microscope's first imaging began Wednesday and produced a calibration
image of a grooved substrate. "It's just amazing when you think that the entire area in this image fits on an
eyelash. I'm looking forward to exciting things to come," Hecht said.

With these developments in the past two days, the spacecraft has put to use all the capabilities of its
Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suite of instruments. Researchers have
begun analyzing data this week from the second sample of soil tested by MECA's wet chemistry laboratory.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix team is checking for the best method to gather a sample of Martian ice to analyze
using the lander's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, which heats samples and identifies vapors from them.
Researchers are using Phoenix's robotic arm to clear off a patch of hard material uncovered in a shallow
trench informally called "Snow White." They plan in coming days to begin using a motorized rasp on the back
of the arm's scoop to loosen bits of the hard material, which is expected to be rich in frozen water.

The atomic force microscope for Phoenix was provided by a consortium led by the University of Neuchatel,
Switzerland.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and
development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian
Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max
Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

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Rare 'Star-Making Machine' Found in Distant Universe

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

News Release: 2008-129 July 10, 2008

Rare 'Star-Making Machine' Found in Distant Universe

Astronomers have uncovered an extreme stellar machine -- a galaxy in the very remote
universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. In comparison, our
own Milky Way galaxy turns out an average of just 10 stars per year.

The discovery, made possible by several telescopes including NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope, goes against the most common theory of galaxy formation. According to the
theory, called the Hierarchical Model, galaxies slowly bulk up their stars over time by
absorbing tiny pieces of galaxies -- and not in one big burst as observed in the newfound
"Baby Boom" galaxy.

"This galaxy is undergoing a major baby boom, producing most of its stars all at once,"
said Peter Capak of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena. "If our human population was produced in a similar boom, then
almost all of the people alive today would be the same age." Capak is lead author of a
new report detailing the discovery in the July 10th issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Baby Boom galaxy, which belongs to a class of galaxies called starbursts, is the new
record holder for the brightest starburst galaxy in the very distant universe, with
brightness being a measure of its extreme star-formation rate. It was discovered and
characterized using a suite of telescopes operating at different wavelengths. NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope and Japan's Subaru Telescope, atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, first
spotted the galaxy in visible-light images, where it appeared as an inconspicuous smudge
due to is great distance.

It wasn't until Spitzer and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, also on Mauna Kea in
Hawaii, observed the galaxy at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths, respectively, that
the galaxy stood out as the brightest of the bunch. This is because it has a huge number of
youthful stars. When stars are born, they shine with a lot of ultraviolet light and produce a
lot of dust. The dust absorbs the ultraviolet light but, like a car sitting in the sun, it
warms up and re-emits light at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths, making the
galaxy unusually bright to Spitzer and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope.

To learn more about this galaxy's unique youthful glow, Capak and his team followed up
with a number of telescopes. They used optical measurements from Keck to determine
the exact distance to the galaxy -- a whopping12.3 billion light-years. That's looking back
to a time when the universe was 1.3 billion years old (the universe is approximately 13.7
billion years old today).

"If the universe was a human reaching retirement age, it would have been about 6 years
old at the time we are seeing this galaxy," said Capak.

The astronomers made measurements at radio wavelengths with the National Science
Foundation's Very Large Array in New Mexico. Together with Spitzer and James Clerk
Maxwell data, these observations allowed the astronomers to calculate a star-forming rate
of about 1,000 to 4,000 stars per year. At that rate, the galaxy needs only 50 million
years, not very long on cosmic timescales, to grow into a galaxy equivalent to the most
massive ones we see today.

While galaxies in our nearby universe can produce stars at similarly high rates, the
farthest one known before now was about 11.7 billion light-years away, or a time when
the universe was 1.9 billion years old.

"Before now, we had only seen galaxies form stars like this in the teenaged universe, but
this galaxy is forming when the universe was only a child," said Capak. "The question
now is whether the majority of the very most massive galaxies form very early in the
universe like the Baby Boom galaxy, or whether this is an exceptional case. Answering
this question will help us determine to what degree the Hierarchical Model of galaxy
formation still holds true."

"The incredible star-formation activity we have observed suggests that we may be
witnessing, for the first time, the formation of one of the most massive elliptical galaxies
in the universe," said co-author Nick Scoville of Caltech, the principal investigator of the
Cosmic Evolution Survey, also known as Cosmos. The Cosmos program is an extensive
survey of a large patch of distant galaxies across the full spectrum of light.

"The immediate identification of this galaxy with its extraordinary properties would not
have been possible without the full range of observations in this survey," said Scoville.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space
Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science
operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information
about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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Ocean Wind Power Maps Reveal Possible Wind Energy Sources

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis/Diya Chacko 818-354-0474/393-5464
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov, diya.s.chacko@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-128 July 9, 2008

Ocean Wind Power Maps Reveal Possible Wind Energy Sources

PASADENA, Calif. - Efforts to harness the energy potential of Earth's ocean winds could soon
gain an important new tool: global satellite maps from NASA. Scientists have been creating
maps using nearly a decade of data from NASA's QuikSCAT satellite that reveal ocean areas
where winds could produce energy.

The new maps have many potential uses including planning the location of offshore wind farms
to convert wind energy into electric energy. The research, published this week in Geophysical
Research Letters, was funded by NASA's Earth Science Division, which works to advance the
frontiers of scientific discovery about Earth, its climate and its future.

"Wind energy is environmentally friendly. After the initial energy investment to build and install
wind turbines, you don't burn fossil fuels that emit carbon," said study lead author Tim Liu, a
senior research scientist and QuikSCAT science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Like solar power, wind energy is green energy."

QuikSCAT, launched in 1999, tracks the speed, direction and power of winds near the ocean
surface. Data from QuikSCAT, collected continuously by a specialized microwave radar
instrument named SeaWinds, also are used to predict storms and enhance the accuracy of
weather forecasts.

Wind energy has the potential to provide 10 to 15 percent of future world energy requirements,
according to Paul Dimotakis, chief technologist at JPL. If ocean areas with high winds were
tapped for wind energy, they could potentially generate 500 to 800 watts of energy per square
meter, according to Liu's research. Dimotakis notes that while this is slightly less than solar
energy (which generates about one kilowatt, or 1,000 watts, of energy per square meter), wind
power can be converted to electricity more efficiently than solar energy and at a lower cost per
watt of electricity produced.

According to Liu, new technology has made floating wind farms in the open ocean possible. A
number of wind farms are already in operation worldwide. Ocean wind farms have less
environmental impact than onshore wind farms, whose noise tends to disturb sensitive wildlife in
their immediate area. Also, winds are generally stronger over the ocean than on land because
there is less friction over water to slow the winds down -- there are no hills or mountains to block
the wind's path.

Ideally, offshore wind farms should be located in areas where winds blow continuously at high
speeds. The new research identifies such areas and offers explanations for the physical
mechanisms that produce the high winds.

An example of one such high-wind mechanism is located off the coast of Northern California
near Cape Mendocino. The protruding land mass of the cape deflects northerly winds along the
California coast, creating a local wind jet that blows year-round. Similar jets are formed from
westerly winds blowing around Tasmania, New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego in South America,
among other locations. Areas with large-scale, high wind power potential also can be found in
regions of the mid-latitudes of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where winter storms normally
track.

The new QuikSCAT maps, which add to previous generations of QuikSCAT wind atlases, also
will be beneficial to the shipping industry by highlighting areas of the ocean where high winds
could be hazardous to ships, allowing them to steer clear of these areas.

Scientists use the QuikSCAT data to examine how ocean winds affect weather and climate, by
driving ocean currents, mixing ocean waters and affecting the carbon, heat and water interaction
between the ocean and the atmosphere. JPL manages QuikSCAT for NASA. For more
information about QuikSCAT, visit: http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov .

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov .

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NASA Mission to be Crystal Ball into Oceans' Future, Mirror to the Past

Feature July 8, 2008

NASA Mission to be Crystal Ball into Oceans' Future, Mirror to the Past

Imagine the lives that could be saved from flash floods and drought, the millions of dollars
in fuel costs that could be avoided for fishing vessels, and the homes that could be spared
from the effects of coastline erosion if only scientists could more accurately predict the
dynamics of Earth's often unpredictable oceans. Armed with increasingly more accurate
forecasts, weather services in countries across the globe are improving time-sensitive
warnings of cyclones, flooding and high sea winds, as well as information about when it's
safe to scuba dive, sail, or fish 48 kilometers (30 miles) or more beyond coastlines.

NASA and several other international organizations have joined forces to launch into space
a "crystal ball" to give scientists an extended satellite data record. The data can be used to
improve ocean forecasting and to test the accuracy of climate and weather models using
knowledge of past ocean conditions.

The newly-launched Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 is made up of next-
generation, state-of-the-art, satellite-based instruments that will provide a global view of
Earth's sea surface height every 10 days. Scientists will use these data to create complex
simulations of how ocean currents, tides and eddies might behave. Similarly, the data will
also allow scientists to "hindcast" -- that is, to test how accurate the simulations of past
ocean forecasts were.

"To borrow from an old saying, 'it's the motion of the ocean' that is of most interest to us as
scientists, and our ability to forecast it and learn lessons from it," said one of the mission's
science team members, Robert Leben, an associate research professor at the University of
Colorado in Boulder. "The further we can look into the past with the record of ocean
measurements, the better we can predict future events. That is to say, if one day we can look
back at a 20- or 30-year data record, we can more accurately say what will happen in the
next 10 or 15 years because we will have a data record that indicates trends or correlations
that lead to specific or expected outcomes. OSTM/Jason 2 is going to add to knowledge
we've gained from the Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 missions and put us closer to this goal."

To create the simulations, also called models, that predict ocean behavior, scientists
combine information about factors such as wind speed, wave height, sea level pressure,
temperature and air pressure with data gathered by satellite altimeters that measure the
height of the oceans' surface (more commonly known as sea level). Radar altimeters, like
those on OSTM/Jason 2, measure sea level by sending a radar pulse to the sea surface and
clocking the time it takes for the signal to reflect back. All these data are fed into a
computer program, allowing scientists to see into the future or to gain further insight from
simulations of the past when hindcasting.

OSTM/Jason 2 is slated to orbit Earth and collect this important data set for at least three to
five years. It will provide scientists with significantly more data to test their models, and
extend the record of information available about ocean circulation and how the ocean affects
global climate. During the mission's lifetime, scientists hope to add to what they currently
understand about weather phenomena like El Nino and La Nina. During an El Nino, the
eastern Pacific Ocean temperatures near the equator are warmer than normal, while during La
Nina the same waters are colder than normal. These fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean
temperatures can wreak havoc on climate conditions around the Pacific and beyond, leading
to increased rainfall or drought.

"A longer period of data from the OSTM/Jason 2 mission can tell scientists more about how
El Nino and La Nina are coupled not only to seasonal or yearly changes but to decade-to-
decade oscillations of the Pacific Ocean," said Leben. "Owing to data from the mission's
forerunner Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 missions, scientists have already determined that
decadal fluctuations in the Pacific enhance the frequency and intensity of shorter-term ocean
events such as El Nino and La Nina. Just think of what more we'll learn as we collect future
data from OSTM/Jason 2."

Knowing more about the oceans' behavior, including what El Nino and La Nina climate
conditions may bring, will improve our quality of life and benefit industry. "For example,
forecasts of ocean currents can predict the oceans' salt balance, which can be used to study the
global water cycle," said science team member Yi Chao, a satellite oceanographer at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Water evaporates from the ocean surface, and
water from rivers and land-runoff cycle back into the ocean, so more precise forecasts of these
movements will boost our knowledge of and ability to manage our most precious natural
resource. This mission can help us determine the role of ocean circulation in completing the
global water cycle."

"On the commercial front, offshore industries such as oil and gas exploration and production
require accurate information about ocean circulation to minimize the impacts from strong
currents and eddies," said Leben. "Search and rescue officials, marine operators, recreational
boaters, and marine animal researchers all benefit from increasingly more accessible near real-
time data."

"The Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 missions got us off to a great start," said Chao. "When the
two missions operated together in tandem, they doubled the coverage area and sharpness of
the resolution of the sea level data so that we could 'see' more detail. This higher resolution is
critical for extending the global sea level data into coastal zones, which of course are regions
of great societal importance. OSTM/Jason 2 will provide another opportunity for a tandem
mission with Jason-1."

Leben pointed out that with this new mission, the focus moves from research objectives to
practical ways to apply the data that benefit society in tangible and essential ways.

For more information on OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm .

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: June 30 - July 4, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
June 30 - July 4, 2008

o Texture (Released 30 June 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080630a

o Texture (Released 01 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080701a

o Hecates Channels (Released 02 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080702a

o Channel (Released 03 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080703a

o Linear Ridges (Released 04 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080704a

All of the THEMIS images are archived here:

http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University,
Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.
The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State
University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor
for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission
operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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MRO HiRISE Images - July 2, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
July 2, 2008

o Mystery Mounds in Southern Acidalia Planitia

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008548_2205

o Subchannels in Kasei Valles

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008523_2060

o TARs and Unusual Star Ripples

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008323_1735

o Lineated Valley Fill in Coloe Fossae

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008598_2155

All of the HiRISE images are archived here:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by t
he University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.,
built the HiRISE instrument.

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New Mission Helps Offshore Industries Dodge Swirling Waters

Feature July 1, 2008


New Mission Helps Offshore Industries Dodge Swirling Waters

Hurricanes aren't the only hazards spinning up in the Gulf of Mexico -- they have a liquid
counterpart in the waters below called ocean eddies. Offshore industries, such as oil and
gas companies, have to keep a weather eye on both. In a worst-case scenario, they could
find themselves caught between the two. Satellite altimetry is helping government and
industry manage those risks.

Satellite ocean observations are a standard part of marine operations around the world.
Keeping track of local currents is critical for daily operations. And in the Gulf of Mexico,
that means knowing the location of the Loop Current and its dangerous eddies.

The Loop Current, which is part of the Gulf Stream, begins as a large flow of warm water
from the Caribbean. It heads up into the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, then turns
south and finally moves out through the Straits of Florida. Deep and fast moving, the
Loop Current often breaks off and forms strong, clockwise rotating eddies called
anticyclones that travel westward into the Gulf. The currents along the outer edges of the
Loop Current, as well as these eddies, have been clocked at speeds as high as three to
four knots (three to five miles per hour), comparable to the fastest ocean currents ever
observed.

Because the Loop Current and its eddies are warmer, and thus higher in surface elevation,
than the surrounding waters, they are easily spotted by satellite altimeters, such as those
aboard the NASA/French Space Agency Jason 1 and Ocean Surface Topography
Mission/Jason 2 satellites. To see what the altimeters see, many offshore operators turn to
Research Professor Robert Leben and his colleagues at the University of Colorado's
Center for Astrodynamics Research in Boulder. They use the latest satellite
measurements of sea-surface height from Jason 1 and two other satellite altimeters to
create maps showing the location, direction and speed of currents in the Gulf of Mexico.
Free and available on the center's Web site, these maps are used by a wide variety of
people involved in marine operations, along with scientists, fishermen and sailors. As
soon as measurements from the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 are
available, they will be included in the data sets as well.

For oil companies, knowing where the Loop Current and its eddies are and are likely to
go is critical. "The rate to rent a drilling rig in deep water is about $300,000 a day," said
George Forristall, of Forristall Ocean Engineering, Inc., Camden, Maine. "If you've
planned an operation and the current is too strong, you have to shut down and spend that
money without accomplishing anything. Once an oil field is found and a permanent
facility is built, it floats on the surface and connects to the bottom by pipes called risers.
You can protect those risers by streamlining them, but that costs a lot, too. Your riser
design has to be appropriate for the currents you expect at your site."

To plan and design rigs and oil platforms for the future, oil companies would like to be
able to anticipate the sea conditions a particular facility may encounter in the Gulf of
Mexico over its lifetime. A consortium of about 20 different companies, along with the
U.S. Minerals Management Service, has asked Leben and Forristall to develop a model
to help determine what the risks from strong currents may be.

"We're constructing a 1,000-year-long statistical simulation of the Loop Current and its
eddies," said Leben. "While we have only 20 to 30 years of observations, using
computer simulation and the right statistical methods, we can figure out how the current
and eddies behave and then simulate a longer period of time."

"It's a modeling technique called Monte Carlo simulation," he continued. "For example,
even if you don't know exactly how dice work, after a number of throws, you can figure
out the probabilities for certain numbers to appear."

"The idea," said Forristall, "is to map the Gulf. There are some places where there have
only been a few eddies in the past. With our artificial time series, we'll be able to fill in
the gaps. We'll be able to see what is the likelihood of an eddy occurring in a particular
spot."

Another goal of the effort is to better understand the relationship between the Loop
Current and hurricanes, which grow stronger as they pass over warm water. Leben said
results of the 1,000-year Loop Current simulation will be combined with simulations of
how the Loop Current's warm surface waters and eddies effect hurricane intensification.
"This will give us a way to assess the likelihood of warm Loop Current events and
intense hurricanes and plan for them."

"These tandem ocean/atmosphere events are rare, but they do occur," said Leben.
"During Hurricane Katrina, when both strong eddy currents and a category-five
hurricane hit the oil patch in the north-central Gulf of Mexico, a total of five rigs and 18
platforms were lost and many more were damaged."

Knowing more about the Loop Current and its spinning offspring will help oil companies
and other offshore industries plan for the future. "Nothing designed by man will ever be
perfectly safe from natural hazards," said Forristall, "but the better we understand the
environment, the better we will be able to manage risk at an acceptable cost."

For more information on OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm .

-end-

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